combo rhythm?

Maybe is a super stupid question but I'm curious if anyone has test it.

All we know that when you are doing combos you have a buffer of one key. So we can do combos at 2 rhymths:
1)You can press a combo and the first arrow, and then wait until the combo sequence indicator appears. And the first arrow of the indicator is green you can press another arrow.

2)Or you can press the combo, wait for the combo sequence indicator, press first arrow and when is green press the second.

3)I heard people say that they don't need the indicator because they know exactly the rhythm of the combos but due to the changes in the latency I can do that a combo in my PC has not always the same speed. (I think)

Does anyone know if one way is quicker than the other. At first it seams like the way 1) it has to be quicker but, maybe is my imagination, I think the time you have to wait until combo sequence indicator appears is longer than in the 2)